Chelsea's Law adds treatment, assessment

Public Safety committee passes the measure with changes

In a file photo from April 20, Brent King, right, the father of murder victim Chelsea King, confers with Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego, left, during a hearing of the Public Safety Committee on Fletcher's measure to strengthen laws against child molesters.
— Associated Press

In a file photo from April 20, Brent King, right, the father of murder victim Chelsea King, confers with Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego, left, during a hearing of the Public Safety Committee on Fletcher's measure to strengthen laws against child molesters.
/ Associated Press

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A new risk assessment tool that measures violent behavior and actions on parole and reports a sex offender’s rating on the public Megan’s Law registry.

Those are two of the substantial additions made Tuesday to a bill named for murdered Poway teenager Chelsea King.

Chelsea’s Law changed significantly but continued its successful run through the state Legislature, clearing the Senate Public Safety Committee on a 5-0 vote.

This panel that’s charged with reviewing any attempt to lengthen prison sentences in California’s overcrowded system was widely seen as the bill’s biggest obstacle, as the committee has generally resisted more incarceration as a solution.

If it becomes law, California would adopt the so-called “containment model” for sex offenders, which experts have found reduces recidivism. It uses polygraph tests and specialized treatment to limit the re-occurrence of crimes.

The state would also switch from its current “Static-99” risk assessment tool, which has been heavily criticized for incompletely measuring a criminal’s likelihood of recidivism, to a system that takes into account actions on parole as a way to predict violence.

Specifics of the two revisions will be worked out in coming weeks as the bill moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee, and potentially the Senate floor by August. It cleared the Assembly 65-0 on June 3.

The bill’s author is Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego. In an interview after the hearing, he said, “I think this is a bill that is truly comprehensive that will fundamentally change how our system incarcerates, sentences, treats on parole our sex offenders in California. I think it’s just a major step forward.”

Assembly Bill 1844 was introduced in response to the rape and murder of 17-year-old Chelsea in February. Convicted sex offender John Albert Gardner III pleaded guilty to murdering Chelsea and Amber Dubois, 14, of Escondido. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Fletcher, R-San Diego, negotiated the changes with Senate Public Safety Committee Chairman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, and their staffs, the last ones at about 8 p.m. Monday. Many of the changes are suggestions from the state’s Sex Offender Management Board.

Leno said it was about time that legislators listened to this group of experts from around the state. He said he’s received loud and clear the board’s message that, “It’s not about how tough you can be on those folks. It’s about how smart you can be to keep your community safe.”

State Deputy Attorney General Janet Neeley, who serves on the Sex Offender Management Board, lauded the bill.

“While punishment is important, it’s also critical to have a system in place to deter recidivism because most sex offenders are eventualy released from prison,” she said.

Ignacio Hernandez, a spokesman for the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, called it “extreme overreaching” though he conceded the changes made for a “more balanced approach.”

What else changed?

Initially the bill called for lifetime parole for sex offenses against children under 14. With the changes, the worst offenders would get lifetime parole, but another group would be on parole for 20 years with a parole board option to retain them indefinitely, and lower level offenders would face 10-year parole terms.

As introduced, the bill banned sex offenders from entering parks. As amended, the ban becomes a parole requirement for all sex offenders on parole for 20 years or more.

In another major change Tuesday, the bill was modified to minimize the extra costs and the increase of incarcerated prisoners it would bring to California’s prison system.

It would change the law so that a charge of petty theft with a prior offense would go from being one that prosecutors have discretion to charge as a felony to a misdemeanor, punishable only by a year in county jail.

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The thinking is that the change would free up beds in prison over the long haul because there are more petty thieves in prison than sex offenders, and the thieves tend to have much shorter prison terms.

A spokesman for the ACLU, however, cast doubt on the analysis. “I remain honestly extremely perplexed how the change to the petty theft with a prior is going to approach paying for the cost, especially for the outer year costs with the bill.”

The state’s prison agency had estimated that the law would cost the state $54 million a year in 20 years.

Fletcher said the idea now is for the bill not only to be cost-neutral but also for the state to spend much less money managing sex offenders because of the introduction of the containment model and new risk assessment tool.